Thai mRNA Covid shot may be ready this year

Thailand may introduce its first locally developed Covid-19 vaccine based on the technology used by Pfizer and BioNTech by the end of this year, the country’s government has said. Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, which developed the vaccine, will submit the results of the trials to the Thai Food and Drug Administration soon for approval, Traisuree Taisaranakul, a government spokeswoman, said in a statement on Saturday. The first batch of the vaccine, named ChulaCov19, was found to be safe in clinical trials and produced more immunity than the PfizerBioNTech shots approved for use in Thailand, she said. The vaccine would be produced locally by BioNet-Asia.